US leadership in cyberspace: Transnational cyber security and global governance

Abstract

This chapter examines US cyber security policy in light of transnational cyber security, deterrence theory, and hegemonic stability theory. Recent work on US cyber security policy has argued for or against deterrence theory as a basis for US cyber security policy. Deterrence theory, as a state level theory of national security, focuses attention on strategic choice enabling policymakers to manage state level responses to perceived threats. The problem is that the Internet is a transnational medium and, increasingly, an important global medium for economic exchange, being treated as a duty free zone under WTO agreements. Thinking about cyber security at the level of the state elides threats to the Internet as a global commercial medium. Framing cyber security as a transnational security issue may assist in developing a comprehensive US cyber security policy that incorporates deterrence and US leadership. The role of the US in the global economic order is to provide leadership ensuring stability necessary or economic and information exchange to occur. From the standpoint of transnational security, the US should fulfill its role as leader of collective hegemony, by leading cyber space stakeholders to develop norms and rules for global cyber security governance regimes and institutions that will teach states the norms and rules necessary for a stable and secure cyber domain through which global information and economic exchange will continue to flourish.